martin wilson

ca coc lobbyist:<div>
</div><div>=</div><div>A certain part of Pete Wilson misses the political game, said Kenneth L. Khachigian, a former strategist to Ronald Reagan who most recently advised Darrell Issa, the San Diego congressman who bankrolled the $2 million recall petition only to drop from the race for governor at the last moment."Pete wants to participate," Mr. Khachigian said. "He cares deeply about this state. For four and a half years, nobody asked his advice, and now his juices are flowing."Among Mr. Wilson's coterie working on the Schwarzenegger campaign is Bob White, his chief political lieutenant for more than 30 years. Mr. White is regarded as one of the best-connected men in Sacramento, an avuncular figure untainted by scandal. He has been, over the years, Mr. Wilson's fixer, facilitator and schmoozer. Mr. White runs the day-to-day operation of the campaign. George Gorton, who ran Boris Yeltsin's re-election campaign, is Mr. Schwarzenegger's chief strategist.The finance and tax advisers were plucked from the Hoover Institution, where Mr. Wilson is a fellow. Among them are George P. Shultz, the former secretary of state; Michael Boskin, former adviser to Mr. Wilson and former chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers; and John Cogan, a deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget under the first President George Bush who is in line to be Mr. Schwarzenegger's independent auditor.Patricia Clarey, a former Wilson deputy, manages the logistics. From the East and a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Ms. Clarey is said to be the conduit to Mr. Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver, who holds great influence over him. Sean Walsh, a campaign spokesman, was also employed by Mr. Wilson.News that the campaign had hired another Wilson associate, Martin Wilson, raised eyebrows. He, along with the advertising guru Don Sipple, were embroiled in an insurance scandal that drove the insurance commissioner, Chuck Quackenbush, from office.A member of Mr. Wilson's inner circle when he was governor, Martin Wilson, no relation, is co-manager of the day-to-day campaign operations. His consulting firm, Public Strategies Inc., received nearly $400,000 from a foundation set up by Mr. Quackenbush after the Northridge earthquake in 1994.Instead of paying huge fines, insurance companies accused of mishandling claims were allowed to contribute to foundations ostensibly devised to help earthquake victims. Instead, the foundations spent millions of dollars on television advertisements devoted to enhancing Mr. Quackenbush's political image.Mr. Sipple, who now produces Mr. Schwarzenegger's commercials, wrote the scripts for the Quackenbush advertisements and was paid $125,000, government records show. Mr. Quackenbush resigned in 2000 rather than face impeachment proceedings. Neither Mr. Wilson nor Mr. Sipple was charged with crimes.Nevertheless, bad perceptions linger, said Brad Sherman, the Democratic congressman who represents the Northridge area."A lot of people feel they got cheated," Mr. Sherman said. "If Schwarzenegger wants to say he is going to clean up special interests, he needs to start with his own staff."Mr. Sipple, considered one of the most effective advertising people in politics, is best known for his commercial "They Just Keep Coming," which depicted illegal immigrants sneaking into California. It was made in support of Proposition 187, and alienated a large part of the Latino community.As good as its winning percentage is, the Wilson team has had highly publicized defeats in recent years. Dan Lungren hired some of Mr. Wilson's top media and polling strategists in 1998 in a losing campaign for governor against Mr. Davis. Mr. Sipple was the chief strategist last year for Richard J. Riordan, the former Los Angeles mayor, who lost by 18 points to Bill Simon Jr. in the Republican primary.Mr. Gorton played down the controversies involving some in the Wilson camp.</div><div></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; font-family: " droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" color="color" rgb="rgb">On Aug. 13, Schwarzenegger shuffled his team, demoting Gorton and adding another consultant embroiled in the Quackenbush scandal, Martin Wilson, who accepted $375,000 from the former insurance commissioner. Gorton's role as Schwarzenegger's chief strategist has been assumed by Bob White, Gov. Wilson's former chief of staff. The move highlights Schwarzegger's close ties to Wilson, who is persona non grata among Latino voters for his support of the anti-immigrant initiative Prop. 187 in 1994.<br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; font-family: " droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" color="color" rgb="rgb">After <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Tonight Show, Gorton told a reporter from the <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">San Francisco Chroniclethat he was unaware of Schwarzenegger's intentions prior to the program. Besides his impending demotion, there are other signs that Gorton may have been telling the truth. Russo recounts a series of private meetings, while Schwarzenegger was in Mexico City promoting <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Terminator 3, between Gorton and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who lost to Simon in the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary. As Russo explained to me, Gorton was planning to jump ship and join Riordan's campaign if Schwarzenegger did not declare, moving from one self-funding client to the next.<br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; font-family: " droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" color="color" rgb="rgb">But Schwarzenegger's announcement came as the greatest shock to Issa, who had already spent some of his car-alarm fortune to warm up a gubernatorial campaign. He had taken out radio ads, printed up posters and hired a new team of consultants, including Ken Khachigian, a veteran speechwriter who served on President Richard Nixon's 1972 campaign "attack group," and Larry McCarthy, the media producer of the infamous Willie Horton ad that helped elect George Bush Senior in 1988. However, with the Republican Party suddenly lined up behind Schwarzenegger, Issa's ambition was crushed. He found himself at a press conference, the victim of a vast Republican conspiracy, and he cried.<br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; font-family: " droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" color="color" rgb="rgb">Make way for Schwarzenegger and his team of consultants, whose credo can be best summarized by a statement Gorton made in <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Mother Jones while working on then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin's 1996 re-election campaign: "Unless you're going to make some serious money, it's not worth it."</div><div>==</div>